Concise, detailed essay plans covering the whole AQA A Level Psychology Attachment topic, created and used to achieve an A* in the 2024 Psychology A Level exam series.
AO1 - Reciprocity: responding to an action with another
similar action, does not occur at the same time
but instead involves turn-taking
- Proposed to be a vital skill required to be
successful in later relations
- Interactional synchrony: mirroring the behaviour
of each other e.g. imitating emotions or
behaviours
- Proposed to be an innate ability as it was
observed in infants as young as 2-3 weeks old
- Meltzoff and Moore – controlled observation –
observed how infants responded to three facial
expressions and a hand gesture, found that
infants generally imitated or responded to the
behaviours
- Proposed to be intentional rather than
coincidental
AO3 x 1 - Individual differences
- Isabella et al found that securely attached infants
responded more frequently to caregiver
behaviours in relation to interactional synchrony
- Supports theory of interactional synchrony as a
method of building attachment but doesn’t
explain reason for differences
AO3 x 2 - Support for intentionality
- Research found that when presented a ball or a
face, the infant did fewer facial expressions in
response to the ball compared to a face
- Therefore suggests infants don’t have the same
response to people as they do to inanimate
objects, so is not coincidental
AO3 x 3 - Methodological issues
- Since infants mouths generally move a lot it is
difficult to decipher which movements are
responding via reciprocity or interactional
synchrony and which movements are just random
movements
- Therefore based on inferences which could lack
reliability
AO3 x 4 - Practical applications
- Particularly with reciprocity, parents are
encouraged to engage with and reward
interactional behaviour as this can aid future
social relationships
- Therefore child is likely to be more successful in
forming and sustaining relationships due to
encouragement of this behaviour
, Essay: The development of attachment
AO1 - Schaffer and Emerson’s four stages of attachment
- Asocial stage: up to around 2 months, infant
responds in the same way to people and
inanimate objects
- Indiscriminate attachment: around 2 months old
infants begin to prefer human company over
inanimate objects but do not show any
preferences towards people
- Specific attachment: around 7 months infants
form a primary attachment, in which they
experience stranger and separation anxiety - in
65% of infants this is the mother
- Multiple attachments: from 7 months, infants
begin to form additional attachments to other
caregivers and form a wider circle – within 1
month of a primary attachment 29% of infants
have another attachment
- Role of the father – more playful, physically active
and provide challenging situations for the infant –
an exciting playmate
AO3 x 1 - Biased sample
- Sample was from a working-class population with
heteronormative parents, where either both
parents worked or the mother stayed at home
- Not representative of families and parental
working arrangements today
- Number of stay-at-home dads has quadrupled
over 25 years
AO3 x 2 - Methodological issues
- Data was collected from mother’s verbal and
written reports of their infant’s behaviour
- Social desirability bias would be a major factor
within the reports
- Creates a systematic bias so validity of data is
challenged
AO3 x 3 - Inflexibility of stages
- Since the stages are proposed to change at
different ages it implies there is a fixed/correct
order of development
- Therefore does not consider cultural or situational
variations, e.g. infants may form multiple
attachments before a primary attachment in
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